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Life brings with a plethora of experiences, each with a flavour of its own. I wish to share with all my readers these various experiences and observations that I have made during my time here on this planet. They may be funny, thought-provoking or simple reflections. I do hope you will find these enjoyable and interesting.

Saturday, 14 April 2012

Pirindai (bone setter) thokku (chutney)

I had mentioned a plant known as bone setter or "pirindai" in Tamil in a previous blog. Here I shall be giving recipes for its use.

Pirindai can be used in many different ways e.g. it can be ground with the batter for adai (a South Indian dish made of fermented batter of rice, tur dal and whole black udad dal which is then made just like dosas).

It can be ground with spinach when making keerai molagutal or keerai mashyal (spinach mash). It can also be used when making pappads, chutney or thokku.

Wash the pirindai well and break it into bits at each node. Wash the corriander, the pudina, curry leaves and ajwain leaves well, remove the thick stalks while keeping the tender ones intact. Roast the methi seeds and red chillies in 1 teaspoon of oil till they are browned. Let this cool. Then grind with asafoetida and salt in your dry grinder to a coarse consistency.

Heat one tablespoon of oil and add the pirindai, corriander, pudina and ajwain along with the tamarind. Roast till the leaves wilt. Cool this.

Add this mixture to the coarsely ground paste along with the ginger and grind in the blender. It should not be too finely ground.

Now heat the remaining oil, add mustard seeds, allow them to pop and then add the ground paste to it. Saute it for 5-6 minutes on a dry flame and allow it turn a dark green.

This can be preserved in a bottle in a refrigerator for quite long. You can even keep some amount for immediate use in the refrigerator and store the rest in the freezer section till required. This can then be thawed and used later.

This can be eaten with chappatis, dosas, to mix with rice or as a chutney for sandwiches.

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About Me

Just an ordinary woman who is chronologically speaking middle aged, but have to yet register the fact mentally. Love interacting with people and exchanging views and ideas. Nothing very unique or exceptional to mark me out as different. Views vacillate between conservative and liberal, tending more towards the latter.